1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a disk device having a positional determination mechanism which can use disks of various outer diameters.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional disk device, in particular a disk device which can use disks of various outer diameters, needs a disk loading device for conveying the disks of various outer diameters to a turntable and for performing the positional determination. Such a disk loading device is generally complicated in that it has a positional determination mechanism which can use the disks of various sizes. This furthermore increases the overall size of the device.
FIGS. 1 through 12 show such a disk loading device. In the figures, 301 and 302 are guide levers, 303 is a disk guide plate, 303a is a refuge guide section, 304 is a slider, 305 is a link lever, 306 and 307 are guide levers, 306a and 307a are guide pins, 308 is an arm, 310 is a clamp, 311 is a clamp arm, 311a is a small disk stopper, 312a is a large disk stopper, 312 is a base, 313 is a turntable, 314 is a spindle motor, 315 is a transfer roller, 316 is a top plate, 317 is a player cabinet, 317a is a front face into which a disk is inserted, 318 is a spring.
A front face aperture 317a into which disks are inserted is provided in the front face of the player cabinet 317. As shown by FIG. 3, a guide lever 301, 302 which detects the size of the disk, a slider 304 which displaces in tandem with the guide lever 301, 302 as shown in FIG. 1, an arm 308 which engages due to the displacement of the slider 304, a guide lever 306, 307 which guides a disk into the device, a link lever 305 which is opened and closed by connection to the guide lever 306, 307, and a disk guide plate 303 which guides the upper face of the disk are mounted on the upper plate 316 provided in the player cabinet 317.
A refuge guide 303a which projects so that a large disk can avoid the small disk stopper 311a is provided on the disk guide plate 303. On the lower section of the disk guide plate 303, a transfer roller 315 is provided to displace the disk and the turntable 313 is provided behind the transfer roller 315. In addition, a spindle motor 314 which drives the turntable 313 and a base 312 to fix the above components are also provided on the lower section.
Above the turntable 313, a clamp 310 is provided which positions and holds an inserted disk on the turntable by the central hole of the disk. The clamp 310 is supported on the clamp arm 311 which rotates about the shaft 312b on the base 312. A stopper 311a is provided which determines the position of a small disk on the clamp arm 311. Another stopper 312a is provided on the base 312 to determine the position of a large disk.
The operation of the conventional disk device will be explained below.
A disk inserted into a conventional disk loading device is transferred in the horizontal direction in contact with the face of the disk guide plate 303 by the disk guide plate 303 and the transferring roller 315.
FIGS. 5 through 8 represent a small disk A as inserted into a device. The outer periphery of the inserted small disk A abuts with the guide pins 301a, 302a of the guide lever 301, 302 as shown in FIG. 5. The guide lever 301, 302 is extended as the small disk A is transferred inwardly. A slider 304 which engages with the linking pins 301b, 302b of the guide lever 301, 302 displaces in a direction of the arrow D. As shown in FIG. 6 when a small disk is inserted the bent projection 304a of the slider 304 and the sloping section 308c of the arm 308 do not engage.
When a small disk is transferred, the outer periphery of the small disk A abuts with the guiding pins 306a, 307a of the guiding lever 306, 307 as shown in FIG. 7. As the guiding lever 306, 307 is enlarged, the disk abuts with the small disk stopper 311a and its position is determined.
The arm 308 is displaced in direction E as shown in FIG. 8 by the sliding lever 308. The guiding pins 306a, 307a which are in abutment with the outer periphery of the small disk A due to the arm 308 separate from the outer periphery of the small disk A and lock the guiding lever 306, 307. The guiding lever 301, 302 is returned to the pre-extension position by the spring 318 when the small disk A is displaced inwardly.
FIGS. 9 through 12 show the device with a large diameter disk inserted. The outer periphery of the inserted large disk B abuts with the guide pins 301a, 302a of the guide lever 301, 302 as shown in FIG. 9. The guide lever 301, 302 is extended as the large disk B is transferred inwardly as shown in FIG. 10. A slider 304 which engages with the linking pins 301b, 302b of the guide lever 301, 302 displaces in the direction of the arrow D. The bent projection 304a of the slider 304 and the sloping section 308c of the arm 308 engage. The rotational range of the guiding lever 306, 307 is adapted to the radius of the large disk B by displacing the arm 308 in the direction D.
When a large disk is transferred inwardly, the outer periphery of the large disk B abuts with the guiding pins 306a, 307a of the guiding lever 306, 307 as shown in FIG. 11. As the guiding lever 306, 307 is enlarged, the face of the large disk B abuts with the refuge guide 303a which projects from the disk guide plate 303, and the direction of displacement of the large disk B is varied from a horizontal direction to an downwardly inclined direction by the projecting refuge guide 303a. Even if the large disk B is transferred further inwardly by the conveying roller 315, it is not stopped by the small disk stopper 311a and its position is determined by abutment with the large disk stopper 312a. 
The arm 308 is displaced in the direction of the arrow E as shown in FIG. 12 by the slide lever in the same way as when handling a small disk A. The guiding pins 306a, 307a of the guiding lever 306, 307 are separated from the outer periphery of the large disk B and the guiding lever 306, 307 is locked. The guiding lever 301, 302 is returned to a position before enlargement by the spring 318 in the same way as when handling a small disk A.
Since a conventional disk device is constructed as above, the problem of increases in structural complexity has arisen in order to deal with CDs of different diameters such as 8 cm or 12 cm CDs. This is a result of providing the small disk stopper refuge mechanism for determining the refuge position of a small disk stopper of an 8 cm disk with respect to a 12 cm disk.
The present invention is proposed to solve the above problems and has the object of providing a simplified structure for positioning disks having different sizes.
The disk device of the present invention comprises a conveying roller for conveying circular disks of differing sizes, a disk guiding section facing the conveying roller and guiding the disk, a disk selection mechanism having projections which are provided in proximity with the conveying roller, the projections being disposed at predetermined positions of the disk guiding section for selectively abutting with a surface of the disk inserted between the conveying roller and the disk guiding section depending on an outer radius of the disk, thereby changing an angle of the disk in the conveying direction depending on the outer radius, and a positional determination mechanism for positioning the disk, the angle of which is regulated by the disk selection mechanism, to respective predetermined positions preset in accordance with the outer radius of the disk.
As a result, a simple mechanism is obtained which can position the inserted disk to a predetermined position in the device depending on the outer diameter of the disk and which can initiate a disk clamp action with respect to the disk by positioning the disk to the predetermined position.
The disk device of the present invention is provided with a disk selection mechanism which regulates an angle of a large disk in the conveying direction upon conveying the large disk so that the large disk abuts only with a large disk position determination section in the positional determination mechanism. When a small disk is conveyed, the disk selection mechanism regulates an angle of the small disk in the conveying direction so that the small disk abuts only with a small disk position determination section in the positional determination mechanism.
In this way, a difference in the angle of the disk with respect to the conveying direction is generated between disks of different outer diameters. A disk conveyed into the disk device abuts with a position determination section for small disk or for large disk depending on its outer diameter, is positioned in a predetermined position in accordance with on the outer radius of the disk and is conveyed to the fixed position which depends on the outer radius of the inserted disk.
The disk device according to the present invention is provided with a disk selection mechanism which is adapted to place the small disk in a position where the small disk does not abut with projections when the small diameter disk is positioned by the positional determination mechanism.
In this way, a simple mechanism is realized for positional determination to a fixed position, which depends on the outer diameter of the disk, of a disk inserted in a state in which the outer edge of the disk abuts with the edge of the disk insertion mouth. In addition, the initiation of disk clamp action with respect to disks the position of which has been fixed is also enabled.